Akame's presence on the battlefield was a variable I had never calculated, but it was one that instantly changed the power dynamic in the room. The elite Humarise guards, who had been so confident in their numbers and equipment, were now frozen in place, pure terror reflected on their faces as their comrade fell silently after receiving a single, small scratch. They were no longer fighting a student; they were fighting the personification of death itself.
"You take care of the blue-haired girl," Akame had said to me, her cold voice cutting through the tense silence. "I'll handle the trash."
I didn't need to be told twice. While Akame became a silent black storm on one side of the room, I charged toward Nejire. On the other side, the battle between Ryukyu and The Curator raged anew. The once sterile laboratory had now become a stage for three separate yet interconnected battles.
Akame's fight was a dance of deadly efficiency. She moved among the guards like a ghost. They fired their energy weapons, but she was already gone, leaving only a shadow behind. She used the walls and ceiling as her footholds, her movements so fluid they were hard to believe. She didn't kill them all with Murasame; that would have been a waste. She only used her cursed sword on the two most heavily armored guards. The rest, she incapacitated with terrifying precision—a quick strike to the nape of the neck with her hilt, a swipe with the flat of her blade to break a wrist, a precise kick to a knee joint. She was a surgeon on the battlefield, dissecting the enemy's defense with a cold composure.
Meanwhile, Ryukyu realized that fighting The Curator head-on was futile. Her opponent's predictive Quirk was too perfect. So, she changed her tactics. She no longer tried to land a decisive blow. Instead, she used her half-dragon form to destroy the environment around them. She slammed her powerful tail into support pillars, tore down panels from the ceiling, creating a rain of debris and chaos. Her goal wasn't to hit The Curator, but to create so many variables, so many moving threats, that her predictive Quirk would be overwhelmed. It was a clever strategy, turning her raw power into a tool for tactical chaos.
I myself finally reached Nejire's side. The horrific machine was still pulsing with energy, even though I had destroyed its power core. "Tatsumi-kun..." she whispered, her blue eyes looking at me with relief. I quickly undid the remaining restraints that held her.
"Can you stand?" I asked.
"I... I think so," she said, trying to get up on shaky legs. Her Quirk may no longer be suppressed, but her energy had been completely drained. She was incredibly weak.
As I helped Nejire to her feet, I heard an enraged roar from across the room. The Curator, frustrated by Ryukyu's new strategy, saw that I had succeeded in my objective. Her anger at having her project interrupted made her lose her clinical composure. "YOU WILL NOT LEAVE WITH MY PRECIOUS ASSET!" she screamed.
She ignored Ryukyu for a moment and pressed a large red button on a nearby console. "If I can't have her," she hissed with a crazed smile, "then no one can!"
The entire facility trembled violently. Blinding red alarm lights began to flash, and a cold, emotionless automated voice echoed from speakers everywhere.
"Warning. 'Specimen Omega' Quarantine Protocol Failed. Releasing all containment assets. Facility will enter total lockdown in five minutes."
"She's releasing everything!" Ryukyu yelled.
Sure enough, from the dark corridors around us, inhuman growls and roars began to be heard, getting closer and louder. The reinforced steel doors along the laboratory walls began to open one by one with a heavy hydraulic hiss.
In the midst of it all, from the largest main corridor, a creature stepped out. It was nearly three meters tall, its skin pale and thick like rubber, with exposed, pulsing muscles. It had four powerful arms, and its solid black eyes shone with a cunning, malevolent intelligence. It was a Nomu, but different from any I had seen before. Far more terrifying.
The creature looked at all of us—at Ryukyu in her dragon form, at Akame with her cursed sword, at a trembling Nejire. But then, its eyes locked onto me. And it spoke, its voice deep and raspy, as if its vocal cords were made of gravel.
"Incursio..."
My entire body froze. This creature... it recognized me. Or rather, it recognized my armor.
"A strange alliance," Ryukyu said, now standing beside me and Akame. The three of us had instinctively formed a defensive line in front of Nejire. "A hero, an assassin, and an... anomaly."
"That monster is different," Akame said, her red eyes narrowing. "Its regeneration... I can feel it. It will be very difficult to kill it with my curse."
"Then we have to incapacitate it and run," I said, my mind racing. I turned to the communicator on my collar. "Momo, what's the situation?! We need an exit, now!"
"I'm working on it!" Momo's tense voice replied from above. "The main exit is in total lockdown. But I found a layout for a large cargo bay at the end of this sector! There should be a giant door there we can break through!"
"Give us a direction!" Ryukyu commanded.
As Momo began to give directions, the high-tier Nomu finally moved. It didn't charge blindly. It moved with the speed and technique of a martial arts expert, its four arms attacking simultaneously from different angles.
Ryukyu took the main assault, her dragon form giving her the strength to clash directly. Akame danced around it, her sword occasionally slashing, trying to create a wound so her curse could work, albeit slowly. I myself focused on defense, using partial manifestations of Incursio to block attacks aimed at Nejire.
"We can't win!" Ryukyu yelled after a few minutes of fighting. "It's too strong and too smart! We have to retreat!"
We began to move backward down the corridor, with Ryukyu and Akame holding off the Nomu's attacks. Behind us, other, smaller monsters began to emerge from their cells, adding to the chaos.
As we ran, I saw Nejire looking at Ryukyu, who took a direct hit to her side to protect her. I saw her mentor get hurt because of her. Something inside Nejire broke. The helplessness she felt transformed into pure rage.
"ENOUGH!" she yelled.
She pushed me aside and stood facing the approaching Nomu. The last remnants of her energy exploded from her hands in a single, devastating spiral wave. The Nejire Wave attack, though not as strong as usual, hit the Nomu directly, sending it stumbling back a few steps and giving us the opening we desperately needed.
"RUN!" she yelled before she fell to her knees from exhaustion.
I immediately picked her up, and we all ran as fast as we could down the corridor Momo had indicated. We finally arrived at the spacious cargo bay. Before us, a giant, reinforced steel door loomed, our only exit. But behind us, I could hear the footsteps of the high-tier Nomu getting closer. It had recovered from Nejire's attack.
We were out of time.
"We have to break it down!" Ryukyu yelled.
"Akame, can you cut it?" I asked.
"No," she replied curtly. "Too thick. My curse won't work on metal."
It was then that the Nomu appeared at the other end of the cargo bay, blocking our way back. We were trapped.
"Alright," I said, taking a deep breath. I looked at Akame, then at Nejire, who was now being supported by Ryukyu. "I'll open a path. All of you, get ready to run."
Akame looked at me, understanding what I was about to do. "That will kill you."
"Maybe," I replied. "But it's better than all of us dying here."
I ignored their protests. I faced the giant steel door. I closed my eyes, feeling my dragon's heartbeat. I no longer asked or negotiated. He and I were one now. I was his rider, and he was my fury.
"GIVE ME EVERYTHING!" I roared.
With a pain that seared my entire being, I unleashed the full manifestation of Incursio for the second time in my life. The complete jet-black armor enveloped me, the draconic helmet forming last. I felt Tyrant's rage flow through me, but this time, I didn't fight it. I channeled it.
Behind me, Nejire stared in horror and awe. "Incredible..."
Akame readied her sword, prepared to fight the Nomu if I failed. Ryukyu hugged Nejire, shielding her.
I didn't turn toward the Nomu. I stared at the door. I drew back my armored fist. I focused every ounce of power, every shred of energy I had absorbed from Todoroki's fire, every echo of the original Tatsumi's warrior soul, into a single point.
At the same time, Akame charged at the Nomu to buy time. And Nejire, with the last of her strength, fired one weak wave of energy at the Nomu to slow it down.
I launched my punch.
"SMAAASH!" I yelled, a word I borrowed from a true hero.
My Incursio fist slammed into the steel door. There was no dent. There was no crack. The door disintegrated into an explosion of dust and metal. Beyond it, I could see the night sky and feel the fresh air of freedom.
But I didn't get to enjoy it. The moment the door shattered, the armor all over my body also began to crack, unable to withstand the force of my own punch. With the sound of shattering glass, Incursio disintegrated, and darkness swallowed me as I fell forward, past the threshold I had just created.